Howdy, and welcome to our weekly selection of the best decks in the Legends of Runeterra meta!
As explained in the Technical Note at the end of this article, we'll first take a glance at a snapshot of our LoR Meta Decks Tier List, which sorts archetypes (that's to say, the aggregate of all decks with the exact same Champions) by popularity, and then we'll dive into the data to check how individual decks perform, to showcase the best LoR decks.
Note: This is an older article.
For the most recent data, check the latest LoR Best Decks article, or our Meta Tier List!
Best LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These are the most popular Standard LoR archetypes according to the Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List – notice that "popular" and "strong" don't quite overlap this early on, though!
Sources: MaRu's data (which samples Plat+ players)
Overall LoR Ladder Trends – Standard
A hotfix last friday nuked Heisho, having a big impact in the LoR meta…
… allowing all three of Beyond's champs to rise to the top: Elder Dragon
and Morgana
had already started with the right wing, and now Mordekaiser
has caught up with a deck at the top of the popularity and performance charts.
In this article we'll check how the Runeterra meta looks like on the LoR ladder – if you want to a look at how things look like for Tournaments, check Leer's What A Wonderful Worlds 2023 Meta where he does a deep dive on the decks and lineups that competitors will bring to LoR Worlds 2023.
Juggernauts – Best Legends of Runeterra Decks for the Standard Ladder
Decks in this category have at least 2400 games played in the last three days, and good to great win rates – as far as current numbers go, these are the best LoR decks in the Standard ladder.
Mordekaiser Morgana
Mordekaiser was the runt of the Beyond litter last Friday, without a deck that was both popular and proficient – but no longer.
Mordekaiser Morgana is the is both the most popular archetype and the most popular decklist with a whopping 8300 games played in the last three days, which puts it miles ahead of other brews in this department.
And it's also among the best LoR decks when it comes to win rate: an excellent 56% with its most popular build on the ladder, and nearly tied with Elder Dragon Norra as the top choice for Worlds 2023.
34 cards
6 cards
26 200
What's more, Morgana Mordekaise is excellent against Elder Dragon Garen, which as we'll see in a bit is the heaviest-hitting decks of them all right now.
Mord-gana also obliterates Morgana Riven and Gwen Zed. The jury is still out about Elder Dragon Norra: builds with Gnar are favored for Mord Morgana, while builds without are a slightly uphill struggle.
Elder Dragon Shyvana
Shyvana
and a top-performing Juggernaut are not exactly the most iconic duo in Runeterra, but here we are as we reach Worlds 2023: with 3500 games played on ladder with a 55%+ win rate and an non-zero chance of winning Wolrds, Elder Dragon Shyvana is definitely one of the best LoR decks right now.
It's fairly weak against Morgana Riven, Gwen Zed, and Elder Dragon Volibear, but reliably beats Elder Dragon Norra builds, and has a slight edge against Elder Dragon Garen. And versus Mordekaiser Morgana it's roughly a 50/50 battle.
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32 400
Elder Dragon Garen
Elder Dragon Garen
whas cemented itself as the heavy-hitter on the LoR ladder – 2900 games in the last three days, and its stellar 59%+ win rate is by far the highest among popular decks.
In last week's early data ED Garen had nearly no bad matchups, but Mordekaiser Morgana has changed that: it's horrible for Garen's Elite crew.
But except for that matchup and Mordekaiser Senna (which doesn't seem too good, and therefore should soon fade), Elder Dragon Garen is doing great against the current field: even to great odds against other Elder Dragon decks, murders Gwen Zed and Annie Jhin (yep, they are back!), and a small edge against Ashe LeBlanc.
Further Reading: Leer's Garen Elder Dragon Deck Guide.
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30 cards
24 000
Elder Dragon Norra, sometimes ft. Gnar
Elder Dragon Norra
is one of the most popular pairs that Worlds 2023 competitors will bring to the fray; a few competitors will also add Gnar
into the mix, but those are markedly a minority.
Things are a bit different on the LoR ladder, with Elder Dragon Norra Gnar being the most popular choice:
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With about 2800 games and a great 56%+ win rate, its certainly an excellent climbing choice.
But some Gnar-less versions are thus far proving superior – there are tons of different builds, yet the second most popular (with about 1600 games played) showcasing amazing performance:
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It's a safe bet that pilots haven't yet found the optimal build, so matchups data is to be taken with the appropriate grains of salt.
Thus far, both version seem firmly superior to Gwen Zed or Morgana Riven. And they both seem weak against Elder Dragon Shyvana.
The Gnar-less version seems weak to Elder Dragon with either Volibear or Shyvana, while slightly favored versus Mordekaiser Morgana. On the contrary, the Gnar-yess version looks quite weak against Mord Morgana, but even against Elder Dragon with Garen or Volibear.
Gwen Zed
"If it's working then don't tweak it," say Seamstress and Shadow Master.
Gwen
Zed
is certainly no longer working as well as last week or pre-patch (when it was among the best decks in the Runeterra meta), but still packs a very solid 54% punch with the exact same build we've seen during Onward.
Gwen Zed is still the bane of Elder Dragon Volibear, has great odds against Elder Dragon Shyvanna, and finds plenty of prey among fringe brews – but Mordekaiser Morgana and Elder Dragon Garen, on the other hand, are full of ouch for Gwen Zed, Morgana Riven is also very tough, and Norra decks are close to auto-lose.
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27 000
Heavyweights – Strong LoR Decks for the Standard Ladder
These decks have between 1200 and 2400 games played in the last three days – thus far, they are among Runeterra's heavy-hitters!
Elder Dragon Volibear
Elder Dragons, Elder Dragons everywhere!!
Elder Dragon Volibear
was last week the most popular archetype by several landslides, and with a huge margin on top.
It remains quite popular, and when looking at performance it's in an interesting spot: last week's versions are truly bad right now (falling well below a 50% win rate), yet the best and most popular version, seen below, is punching at a great 55% win rate across nearly 2000 games in the last three days.
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When an archetype is polluted with bad builds, like Elder Dragon Volibear is right now, matchup data is very sketchy. It would seem Elder Voli has the upper hand against Mordekaiser Morgana and versus Elder Norra decks – but suffer horribly against Elder Garen or Morgana Riven.
Neeko Teemo
Below all this Timmyfest, with pilots hurling huge units at each other, Neeko
Teemo
have sneaked in by going cheap and wide, and then sprinkling a Yordles in Arms 
to clash with the other big butts on the board.
Performance is thus far just "solid", with a 53% win rate. Great odds against Elder Voli, but weak to Elder Garen, Elder Norra, and Mord Morgana.
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27 100
Ashe LeBlanc
If you can't bash those big bodies, then freeze their butts and kick 'em while they're cold!
Ashe
LeBlanc
has found new toys and renewed success in this go-tall meta, punching close to the 56% mark with about 1300 games played. It looks amazing against Elder Voli and Elder Shyvana, crushes Morgana Riven, and can go toe-to-toe with Elder Garen.
Elder Norra and Mord Morgana are quite tough, though – that's not a great place to be in the current LoR meta, but on the other hand those seem to be the only two weak spots for Ashe LeBlanc when facing strong, popular decks.
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25 100
Annie Jhin
Annie
Jhin
was looking very good last week, although it in the early Beyond days it was a very fringe option.
Fringe is no more: with 1200+ games in the last three days and rivaling Elder Garen in winrate (nearly 58% in this case), Annie Jhin looks like it's again ready to set the stage on fire.
They have started Beyond on the right foot, though, with quite a few games under their belts and sky-high performance.
It doesn't look like a meta-breaker, above all since it crumbles against Elder Garen and Elder Norra – but it has enough prey, and in some of those cases such a huge edge (like versus Ashe LeBlanc or Elder Voli, which Annie Jhin nukes from orbit) that, against this field, blazing brat and bullet buff should be at the top of the charts soon.
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27 500
Punching Up – Standard LoR Decks Doing Great
Standard LoR decks with between 800 and 1200 games played in the last three days – we're sailing into small data samples here, so pilots beware!
Elder Dragon Janna Seraphine
From the previous expansion's champions (namely Volibear, Nilah and Janna), the first is still a force to be reckoned with, the second has been nuked from the current Runeterra meta, and the third may have found a chance by sharing the boat with a grumpy old dragon and a zaunite singer.
Elder Dragon Janna
Seraphine
doesn't look amazing right now, but a 52% win rate means it's very playable.
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32 200
Elder Dragon Morgana
It's an Elder world right now; we're just living in it. And Morgana has picked the hint: Elder Dragon Morgana shows a lot of promise right now (stellar 56%+ performance across close to 1000 games), providing Morgana with another very strong deck besides Mordekaiser.
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Morgana Riven
Morgana Riven
has deflated quite a bit since last week, when it was looking like a powerhouse – it's most popular build is struggling at the 50% mark, but the second most popular is doing quite well.
It has an awful time against Elder Norra and Mordekaiser Morgana, though.
Further Reading: Leer's Morgana Riven Deck Guide
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Darius Gnar
Picking a couple of new pets, Darius
Gnar shows some very solid performance this week – dies painfully to Elder Garen and Mordekaiser Morgana, but reliably beats other Elder brews, including Elder Norra decks.
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23 600
Your Mileage May Vary
Elder Dragon shows up in the majority of strong, popular decks, but there's a ton of experimentation with Mordekaiser going on right now in the fringes.
If none of the more meta decks floats your boat, here are a handful of more fringe options that are doing well on the Standard LoR ladder – sample sizes are small, though, so tread carefully!
Mordekaiser Norra
It was bound to happen: two of the strongest Champs right now, mixed up!
Thus far the results are not amazing, but Mordekaiser Norra seems quite solid.
24 cards
16 cards
32 100
The Poro King Yuumi
His Royal Fluffiness lives on! These big meanies may have pushed His Fluffiness to the fringes, but His Majesty is packing one huge punch there.
28 cards
12 cards
24 000
Jax Ornn
One of the most flexibles shells during the last patch, when it was one of the very few champion pairs that could compete both in Standard and Eternal, Jax
Ornn
is doing very well in the fringes of the LoR meta. And very happy that Gwen Zed's popularity is in the downswing.
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11 cards
18 000
Mordekaiser Viego
Mordekaiser Viego
is another Mord deck showing a lot of promise, and it even seems very favored against the Mord Morgana version.
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27 400
Maokai Mordekaiser Mill
Yep, this is a thing!
Not only that: it's a mill thing!
And it's doing fairly well, with a 53% win rate – so, yeah, if you are a mill fan, you are morally contractually obligated to take this one for a spin. Here's a reddit thread by KríSiS, the deck creator, with a quick explanation about this beauty.
11 cards
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26 700
Pyke Rek'Sai, aka Lurkers
No longer a powerhouse, but far from gone, looks like Pyke
Rek'Sai
will close the year as the most stable deck in Runeterra: since rotation arrived at the start of Glory in Navori, Lurkers has been the only deck you could have played in any LoR meta this year and be assured you were piloting a competitive deck.
Further reading: Pyke Rek'Sai Deck Guide
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26 400
Caitlyn Teemo
There's always somebody playing Caitlyn
Teemo, often in spite of its poor win rate – the former is yet again true, but the latter may false right now.
If you like traps but loathe portals, now's the time for some puffcap fun.
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26 300
Fizz Yuumi
Drop some elusive s, buff them to hell and back – an old technique, and some would say not too chivalrous, but it was working well last week, and is working even better right now.
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27 700
Mordekaiser LeBlanc
Last week, before the hotfix, LeBlanc Mordekaiser was the most promising Mord deck. It's been pushed to the fringes since then, yet still packs a solid punch, in case you want to go Mord but with an off-meta build.
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Wrapping Up
With LoR Worlds 2023 starting today, we'll get to see the best players in Runeterra fighting for the biggest prize of all. We'll see how that impacts the LoR meta in the ladder, but as of right now (and barring yet another hotfix…) these are the best decks if you want to climb the ranks.
Hope you've found your weapon of choice, and good luck out there!
If you have any questions or comments, or more data you may need, feel free to:
Poke me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HerkoKerghans,
Or find more writings on substack: https://riwan.substack.com/
Technical Note – About overall archetypes and specific decks, and what we mean by "LoR best decks"
Most data sites (including our LoR Meta Tier List, and our meta stats page) and articles like Leer's Legends of Runeterra Meta Decks Report sort LoR meta decks by archetype ("Archetype" being the aggregate of all decks in LoR with a specific champion combination) – that's also how matchup tables are shown in pretty much all data sites.
In this article, we'll sort these decks by the best specific decklist for each archetype. And, whenever we talk about LoR decks in general, or best Legends of Runeterra decks in particular, we'll always be referring to specific lists (while reserving "archetype" to denominate the aggregate of all decks with a particular champion pair).
And, since in each archetype some decks fare better than others (and sometimes the difference is quite noticeable), we'll broadly group the best LoR decks in arbitrary categories by the number of games played in the data samples we check:
- Juggernauts: LoR decks with more than 2100 games – these are the best tried-and-true, top meta decks in Legends of Runeterra at the time of writing.
- Heavyweights: LoR decks with between 2100 and 1200 games played – other excellent choices, with large enough samples to confidently say, "Yeah, this works."
- Punching Up: LoR decks with between 1200 and 800 games played – we're entering the Land of Small Sample Sizes here, but as far as numbers go, these decks can put up one hell of a fight into the current LoR meta.
As a rule of thumb, LoR decks with a win rate (WR) above 52% catch our eye; above 53% are eye-widening, and anything with a WR over 55% is exceptional.
Sources: Legna's LoR data website, Mastering Runeterra Meta Tier List, and our LoR meta stats page.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from Riot (via Riot's API) – in other words, all the numbers in this article are "from the horse's mouth," so to speak.
Liver, our wonderful coder and unsung MaRu 🐐 (also in charge of designing the website) makes Riot's data automagically appear in our meta tier list and meta stats page, and all-around LoR 🐐 Legna shares his data (from the same source, although following a different set of players) with us too.
